<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">I am not sure that I want to engage with Nance's syntax and morphology at the moment, because I have other matters in hand.</font><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">And also because there are many who so revere Nance (rightly) that they are unwilling to allow the possibility that he might have been wrong on occasion.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">Nance was a pioneer and to publish a hatchet job on UC would perhaps not be fair, given that he cannot defend himself. </font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">You may have seen my recent publication <i>Geryow Gwir</i>, in which I compare Nance's lexicon with the vocabulary of the texts.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">Who would have thought, for example, that the commonest word in Middle Cornish for 'sight' was not <b>golok</b> or <b>vu</b> but <b>syght</b>?</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">Or that the commonest way of saying 'in spite of' is not <b>awos</b> but <b>in spÓt dhe</b> or <b>in despÓt dhe</b>?</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">Nance taught that <b>whans</b> and <b>whansa</b> were the ordinary words for 'desire' and 'to desire'. In fact <b>desÓr</b> and <b>desÓrya</b> are commoner than either. <b>DesÓr</b> is first attested at PC 18 and <b>desÓrya</b> at PA 4a.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;"><b>Diank</b> 'to escape' is attested 3 times, but <b>scappya</b> 'to escape' occurs 15 times.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">We were all taught to say <b>mŤs</b> for 'but', but <b>mas</b> is commoner in this sense. By far the commonest word, however, is <b>sow</b>.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">I cannot understand why Nance invented the word *<b>dewotty</b> for 'pub, tavern' when both <b>tavern</b> and <b>hostlery</b> are attested.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">He also invented *<b>gwerthjy</b> for 'shop'. Caradar never uses this but prefers <b>shoppa</b>, which occurs in place-names.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;">Nance invented <b>avon</b> 'river'. The attested form is <b>awan</b>, known from Lhuyd and one place-name. This shift v > w is also seen in <b>cavos</b>/<b>cawos</b>. I have collected 5 examples of <b>cavos</b> (mostly from Late Cornish), whereas <b>cawos</b> is attested 11 times and at all periods. Nance's default form was <b>cafos</b> with a voiceless medial consonant. It is clear, however, that Cornish had two stems, <b>cafos</b>, <b>cafus</b>, <b>caffus</b> and <b>cavos</b>/<b>cawos</b>. Compare Middle Welsh <b>caff</b>- and <b>cav</b>- and Middle Breton <b>caffout</b> and <b>kavout</b>. Forms with permanent initial lenition are found incidentally in TH as <b>gafus</b> and SA as <b>gowis</b>.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></font></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Nance used </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>yowynk</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "> as his default form for 'young' but this occurs only in the phrases </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>yowynk</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>ha loos</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "> and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>yowynk ha hen</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">, where four syllables are needed for the metre. The ordinary word for 'young' is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>yonk</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "> at all periods. Indeed </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>den yonk</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "> and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>flogh yonk</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "> are both attested in PA.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Nance taught that 'England' could be *<b>Pow Sows</b>, *<b>Bro Sows</b> or <b>Pow an Sowson</b>. In fact on the last is attested at all and only once. The ordinary word for 'England' is <b>Inglond</b> which is found 3 times in TH. Nance used <b>Alban</b> for 'Scotland', which he got from Lhuyd. In Modern Welsh the ordinary word for 'Scotland' is <i>Sgotland</i>; <i>yr Alban</i> is literary. <b>Scotland</b> was the ordinary word in Cornish; it occurs three times in BK.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Of course *<b>Iwerdhon</b> (<i>Ywerdhon</i>) is also an invention of Nance's. The attested word is <b>Wordhen</b>, which occurs in Lhuyd and in Tonkin.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Nance taught *<b>Kembry</b> for 'Wales' even though Lhuyd had <b>Kembra</b>, <b>Kimbra</b>, which form has been corroborated by BK.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">Nicholas</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br></span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></font></div><div><div><div><div>On 7 Nov 2013, at 11:12, ewan wilson wrote</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><font size="2" face="Georgia">Nicolas' observations on Nance's UC grammar as compsred with what's in the actual texts is extremely useful.</font></div><div><font size="2" face="Georgia">I realise it'd be a major task to expand this but if you went through the grammar- syntax and morphology- systematically, noting such disjunctions I reckon you'd be doing us an immense favour, Nicholas! We'd owe you an even more immense debt of gratitude!</font></div><div><font size="2" face="Georgia">What sayest thou?!</font></div></span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>